Well, hello lovers of music and culture. We are Under the Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases, upcoming shows, and other adjacent items. We keep it moving, hustling with the changes, thinking outside the margins. We’ve been doing this for five years… Spend some time with us…
IRRIVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS, FUTURE PRESENT PAST (IMPULSE RECORDS)
There is always a protected, untouchable energy that surrounds this free jazz quintet with an experimental punk mentality. Putting in a decade’s worth of work on vinyl and on the road, avant-poet Camae “Moor Mother” Ayewa (the vocal entity of the collective), bassist Luke Stewart, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, and drummer Tcheser Holmes sound as if they have yet to touch the surface of creativity with their fifth studio outing, Future Present Past.
Right off the riff of the first song, “Juntos Vencemos”—which means “together we overcome” in Spanish—assisted Helado Negro, there’s a rhythmic call to the front line. With bass drums, cowbells, trumpet squawks, and a hymnal vocal persistence, it serves as the quietest protest song recorded in a minute. Beyond the haunting feel of the ancestors, those who’ve passed on, the spirits swirling in the call add to it, and this is just me; I hear jaime branch. Calling out from the grave or above, speaking to the living, “We have a job to finish.”
And that could be in play, according to the band: “At one point in our recording session at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, we gathered spontaneously in the center of the main room, collected our percussion, and, without plans or fanfare or being told what to do, commenced collaborating in the moment. A moment of trust, listening, and action.”
“Vibrate Higher” explores the anguish of black trauma, human trauma, hate crimes, and pervasive negativity through a free-jazz improvisational arrangement, that intense energy inspired by the music of Pharoah Sanders. Moor Mother leads the way, navigating from chaos to resolution, with musical lines that move: “See, we vibrate higher, vibrate higher; don’t let me show you my peace. I’ll give you a piece of my mind. We vibrate higher, reaching higher frequencies. We can’t hear you because we are at peace.” Amid all the battle hymns, the music, the charts, can still swing like a spring breeze.
“We Know,” featuring the vocal embellishments of MOTHERBOARD, who is featured on half of these tracks and feels like the band’s own June Tyson, primary vocalist for the Sun Ra Arkestra from 1968 until her death.
MOTHERBOARD enhances what is always at work with this unit, beauty, in the face of all types of struggle. “Keep Going,” another standout, where drummer Holmes, bassist Luke Stewart, and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro create some late Miles colors, the Dark Magus era, the way-way-out era. The unit drives tension, with gurgling saxophone skronking, and Moor Mother calling the play: “I see you, I saw you, find your way, charting maps, finding the light, digging the tunnel, finding the way out of nothing, I see you surviving. I see you surviving. I saw you catch the holy ghost; I saw you dancing with the shadows. I saw you coming home.”
It’s some of the funkiest moments this collective has committed to tape yet. Pick it up here.
DJ PLATURN’S “WHAT’S IN MY BAG?” FROM AMOEBA MUSIC
Talk about a music series that always educates, entertains, and delivers in various forms—that’d be “What’s in My Bag?” from Amoeba, which asks the titular question of shopping, often pretty famous, patrons. Every time I watch an artist I like, don’t know, or can’t stand, I come away with knowledge.
DJ Platurn is heavyweight, Jack. Bay Area royalty, reppin’ Vallejo via Reykjavik. A 30-year veteran of the music industry, founder of Platurn Productions, The 45 Sessions, & the Oakland Faders, he’s done it. And then some. So to hear him inform us all for almost 15 minutes on classic Native Tongue albums, Portishead, Soft Machine, Sly, Shuggie Otis, and more is a delight. I was actually making mental notes on albums I’ve owned and been close with for over 30 years. That’s how education should really work. Do your brain and ears a favor, and check in on this. It’s a gem of an episode. Oh yeah, he digs up a James Brown live at Studio 54 record, too.
EARTH TONGUE, DUNGEON VISION (IN THE RED RECORDS)
Garage-rock icon Ty Segall, who attended the University of San Francisco, where he received a degree in media studies, much like his cosmic musical brother Jon Dwyer, can’t sit still. We’re pretty provincially proud about these two. Both have had a large imprint on this scuzzy, nouveau version of punk that’s been pushing more of a heavy-psyche feeling. With just one listen to the “fuzz-drenched anthems and psych-folk journeys” of Dungeon Vision, the Segall-produced album from New Zealand duo Earth Tongue, you will immediately make that connection.
Guitarist Gussie Larkin and drummer Ezra Simons opt for simplicity. I read in a Quietus review, “the pair’s style can be succinctly described as stompy.” That’s dope, so true. No overproduction, useless fluff, or overworked imagery happening here. They are a duo and act as such. Just heavy, thick-as-a-brick drumming; crunchy guitar licks that reliably deliver; and an oozing-woozing of basslines, making these jammers slither like a snake’s body. Pick it up here.
FREE EARTH DAY CELEBRATION AT GOLDEN GATE BANDSHELL, WED/22
Listen, eco-friendly activists. If you need a bit of priming good vibes before the official April 22 celebration of Earth Day. Well, I suggest making your way to the Golden Gate Bandshell on Sunday the 19th. Before you start planting Spotted Gum or Sweet Bay trees, cleaning up local parks, reducing plastic waste, and using sustainable transport, you may want to keep it Kermit Green in a whole other way. The Crucial Reggae Sundays crew will be kicking the whole day off early at noon, with special live guests Los Rakas and Razteria. Happy Earth Day! More info here.
BEN CHRISTENSEN, “HERE COME THE LIONS” (BAR PART TIME RECORDS)
It would seem that San Francisco’s Bar Part Time evolving to include a record label just may have been the right move. Here we are on release number three, “Here Come the Lions” by Ben Christensen. The label itself describes the release as “the finest dance release of the early months of 2026″—and dammit, Jim, they just may be correct.
There’s a track here called “Music Remembers” that’s transcendent in its simplicity, landing someplace between freestyle bounce and minimal tech, with a warm, melodic bass line and charming hand claps that wrap everything up in a holiday bow. It’s addictive like a runner’s high.
The other sheer stunner has got to be “Whose Water,” with all the ambient nods and turns, those bliss-lined thoroughfares, and smarts to keep the bpm at heart-beat tempo so you take all this beauty in, unrushed. Buy it here.
